Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

It’s been awhile since I’ve written personally on here! The last few months have been so very hectic — just finished up two big trips to LA and then Seattle for a few weddings (see above with my dear fencing friends from university!) — as well as a bunch of big development stuff for WeddingLovely that has been keeping me busy. Curious on what’s coming up?

WeddingLovely’s network of wedding directories now include florists, bakeries, and musicians, bringing our total number of wedding directories to eight. I launched our latest three in quick succession since I have been working on something bigger — a single all-vendors WeddingLovely Vendor Directory. Vendors will continue to have their profiles shared on their dedicated directories (as well as within our wedding planning and wedding website app, WeddingLovely.com), but we’ll also have a dedicated vendor space to showcase all of our lovely vendors as well as finally supporting every vendor category, not just the ones we have dedicated directories for.

I’m working hard to make sure everything plays well together (so vendors only need to update their information in one place and it’ll automatically share across every listing we have for them) so it’s been a fun few weeks developing and designing all of this! The WeddingLovely Vendor Directory will launch sometime next month, so stay tuned.

Combined with this, I’m also working on an analytics solution so vendors will be able to see the views they’re getting for each of their listings (again, on the dedicated directory, the general directory, and on our wedding planning app). This includes both search views as well as dedicated profile views!

Last, I’ve mentioned a Blogging and Social Media for Wedding Vendors eCourse, which has been delayed (for the above good reasons). I have a huge document where I’ve been writing everything out and making sure I have all the materials before announcing a date. So when the course is completed and perfect, I’ll announce the starting date and start signups! I really want to make sure it has great information, so don’t want to launch prematurely.

What do you think? Anything you think I should work on? My favorite part about WeddingLovely is that I can work directory with my customers (you!) and build awesome things. I welcome all feedback and requests.

If you’re a small business owner, you know the work day isn’t just Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm. I’ve gotten into a good routine lately with my schedule, but it’s a little odd, and I thought it would be fun to share it with you so you get an insight into how I spend my day! Also: this generally applies to sixdays per week, with one day which’ll be lazier than the rest or I have some event going on.

I am so lucky to have snagged an Altitude Summit SLC ticket (sold out in hours!), one of the premier design and lifestyle blogging conferences in the world. I’m looking forward to schmoozing with some of my blogging idols (Meg Keene! Anne Sage! Melanie Blodgett! More!) as well attend all-the-sessions-that-I-can so I can continue to grow and improve this blog and the entire WeddingLovely network.

Unfortunately, WeddingLovely isn’t a bigwig company (yet) and with the conference ticket costing $524.95 (not to mention plane tickets from California and lodging), I’m looking for companies to help sponsor my trip to Salt Lake City in January.

Benefits for the sponsor:

I will be blogging all my experiences from the conference on the blog (just like my coverage of the National Stationery Show) and sponsors will be listed, linked, and thanked in every post. Post will also be shared throughout the month via Twitter (4,100+ followers), and Facebook (1,300+ likes).

Sidebar advertising for the conference sponsor for at least three months or more, depending on sponsorship amount.

Dedicated post about the company or brand and why it’s awesome here on the blog, similarly shared via our social media outlets mentioned above.

Additional ideas welcomed by the sponsor — use your product at the conference? Put your brand on my business cards? I welcome your ideas!

Help send me to Salt Lake City for Altitude Summit SLC! Email me at [email protected] and we can chat more.

One of the most important aspects of running a successful business is developing your brand. As a business – whether you intended to or not, you are a brand. Building a strong brand may seem like a daunting task so I’ve broken down a few of the biggest do’s and don’ts for those looking to build or improve their existing brand.

In startup land, it’s very rare to hear about a startup launching a print product, much less a startup that primarily revolves around internet properties and only has two people. But WeddingLovely has been releasing a print and PDF “Lookbook” with all the wedding vendors we work with (the third edition came out last Monday), and I thought it would be useful to go into some of the reasons why we break away from the internet.

One thing I get asked a lot is how did WeddingLovely start, especially since I’m not married nor engaged, nor have I ever been! It all started when I left my one-and-only “real” job I’ve ever had — I’ve worked a variety of service positions like most teenagers/young adults, but my only “real” job was working during and after graduation from college (with a BFA in Art & Design) as the “Lead Design & Optimization Manager” of an online education startup. I was there for 4.5 years, and after leaving, I tried freelancing web design for a bit until I got it in my head that I wanted to do a startup. This jump was a bit less scary since my significant other was running his own startup at the time, and I got to see him go through working on it and learned a lot from him.

One of the hardest parts I’ve found about being a “founder” is the rollercoaster of emotions. Some days there are exhilarating highs, and then the very next day can make me want to crawl into bed with my covers over my head and not come out. Ever.

As a founder, is that you’re always expected to answer, “How is your startup doing?” with, “Fabulous!” You’ll almost never get a straight answer out of a startup founder — it’s always going to be roses and awesomeness, even if that founder woke up that morning worrying about the present and dreading the future.

One of the things that I have not done but have always known I should do is write personally on the blog here. We run interviews with our vendors, showcase products, announce new launched products and features, and talk about the wedding industry — but there hasn’t been a real personal element. Why? I’m not sure — perhaps the fact that we’re super busy, or lazy in a weird way, or perhaps a bit of fear. Today, I’m going to change that, and I’m hoping to write every week about something. The progress of WeddingLovely, what we’re trying to do, what our last week was like, what our next week will be like, something. They won’t really have a point, but you’ll get insight into WeddingLovely and what we’re trying to do, and get to know us.

I’ve done all of this as a solo female designer first-time entrepreneur. I’m building WeddingLovely, dedicated to making wedding planning easier and supporting independent wedding vendors.

Looking back on the last year, there are several big things that directly contributed to the success I’ve had thus far. Before I dive into my story, I’d like to note that having a cofounder is better than not having a cofounder, but doing it by yourself is 1000x better than giving up (and 200x better than continuing with the wrong cofounder).